Guitars without trussrods

Appel

I'm interested, too!

I just know I love my guitars with their large necks - "vintage-style, big round necks"; yes, just like that - and stiffening bars and no truss-rods. Highly recommended. Good luck with your search, and your decision!

Bob Holo

bluetrain wrote: »

Bob Holo wrote: »

I do fixed and adjustable depending on what I’m trying to achieve.

Now I'm getting interested So what are the things you're trying to achieve by not using an adjustable trussrod?

Historical accuracy. The whole goal of the somewhat absurd amount of time I put into understanding truss rods was to be able to achieve a neck that had the same performance either way. From time to time I make bench copies, and when I do that, I reproduce all elements of the guitar, even if they have no impact on performance... which is odd... but (shrugs) Haha... sometimes luthiery is odd. Part science, part art, part fetish ;-)

Jazzaferri

@Bob Holo ) Yes indeed

CyrilGaffiero

Hi , I'm nevv on this forum and I'd like to say a fevv things about my experience vvith truss rods, and the feedback I have from professionnal musicians.
First thing about the ay truss rods affect or not the guitar sound: I have had to install truss rods on old guitars (the last ones ere oval hole Castelluccia, and a D-hole Castelluccia, both of them more than 40 or 50years old.) The oner asked me to do this because the necks had so much relief that the action made them very hard to play. I did not notice any significant difference in the sound after the truss rods vvere installed, but of course a much better playability, and the result is 2 great guitars to, play (many other things vvere done on the guitars of course: neck surface adjustment, nevv fingerboard, and many other repairs...

I also install truss rods on the guitars I make because many of the musicians I knovv ask for it: they love the possibility of perfectly adjusting the action. One of my very good friends ovvns a Jean-Pierre Favino oval-hole and has a truss rod setting for vvinter, another for summer. He does it on behalf of Jean-Pierre Favino and because that very small difference in the action is very significant hen you play professionnaly many hours every day.
Of course the neck construction must be as perfect as possible, and the vvood as dry and stable as possible, truss rods vvill not correct a too much important defect.

I have talked a lot vvith american an european musicians and luthiers, and it appears to me that there are real difference in the conceptions vve have about gypsy guitars, and hovv they must be built and sound, all opinions are interesting and have to be respected of course.

Craig Bumgarner

Hey Cyril, good to see you here! Just a quick note to say my experience has been similar. I used to build with carbon reinforcement only and no adjustable truss rod, but changed at the request of players who are trying to maintain the lowest string action throughout the year. For them, it is a help. I too have retrofitted adjustable rods to older guitars whose necks have a tendency to bend regardless of previous attempts to repair and while it does add a noticeable amount of weight (~120g for a double action rod), I notice no difference in the sound before and after.

I have been using some single action titanium rods and they work good and only 40g, but in order to have them work in both directions, the fingerboard has to be leveled with some tension on the rod and I prefer not to have this, so I've been using the double rods.

bluetrain

Thanks guys for your replies. After I started this discussion I went to Django Festival in France. It was in Fontainebleau this year because of the floods. It was raining for two days when I got there and after those two days the sun really started heating and the humidity was insane. I think it was close to 100%. So I was really happy to have an adjustable trussrod because the neck relief changed a lot!

I concider myself as a professional musician and I never adjust action with the trussrod. There's a perfect relief where I feel that my rhythm and solo sound is optimum. Too much relief gives very round and woody sound but it lacks the barking sound that works really nicely on rhythm. Too little relief sounds to me too tight and agressive. So I would prefer to change the action by changing to a higher or lower bridge. This way the sound stays more or less the same. Because of this I really recommend luthiers to build two or three different height bridges for their guitars! Using shims seems to change the sound also too much to my taste.